Tactical Question - Daughter in College - which State to lease in

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HACKRS - I need a bit of advice for my scenario. I am from NJ, my daughter is in college in southern California entering her sophomore year this fall. She rents a house with friends and I expect her to be there for the next 3 years. She’s going to need a vehicle and I am looking at leasing a Mazda CX-5, Toyota RAV4, Honda CRV or something similar. My timeline is for her to have something out there at the end of July beginning of August.

I am trying to figure out if it makes more sense to lease something in NJ and ship it to California or just to lease something in California. The first consideration is cost, it appears that it may be cheaper to lease in NJ (taxes, annual registration, maybe programs) then again I will have to fork over the cash to ship it to CA. The other thing to consider is both my daughter and I are NJ residents. I know some brands have lease restrictions for CA residents only. I am not sure, but if she gets a CA driver license I would assume I could cosign for her.

Are there any Hackrs out there who can shed a bit of clarity on this? Your feed back is appreciated.

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if she has a NJ DL - id be surprised if a dealer will register the car for her in CA.

NJ taxes, NJ rebates/rates, NJ plates

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Depends on your insurance.
My child in College was able to get CA insurance while going to school in NY. I told them specific and as long as she is a dependent on my taxes (and the car is in my name) the CA insurance would work.

Since you are in the opposite range, I would call to see.

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Something electric in NJ so you dont have to pay tax.

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She rents a house in CA, she can just go to the DMV and get a License.

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sometimes dealer and/or bank let you reg car in state different from DL with enough proof of address mail like utility bill and lease contract

i did it. IA DL, leased car in IL, IL plates, and IL address. With just one CC bill in that address.

GM financial tried to unwind it if i didn’t provide with a checking bank statement with IL address

maybe dealers on here can chime in

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The insurance would be the same scenario if registered in NJ. My son goes to school in GA with NJ Plates on NJ insurance. I haven’t considered the cost delta - NJ is pretty expensive - all my neighbors leave their key fobs in their Ranger Rovers, MB etc…

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Good point, but does CA have higher ev incentives than NJ?

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Even if the Landlord would let me pay for a charger, electric would be a PIA with the parking setup at her place.

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Just get it in CA. If you get it in NJ, you’ll pay NJ taxes upfront, then when you re-register it in CA, they will tax the monthly payment again.

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If I get it in NJ - NJ plates will be on it for the life of the lease.

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Pretty sure that’s not allowed in CA.

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@Cody_Carter is the Toyota plug, ask him

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Is she paying out of state tuition? If not and she’s paying resident tuition, she needs a CA DL and a CA plate.

Call and ask the CA DMV to confirm this

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Another case of law vs practice. Unfortunately CA is one of those states that’s really aggressive about collecting their pound of flesh from us tax chattel.

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Taxation is theft.

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She goes to a private school, residency for going to CA state/university is a whole other ball of wax.

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